Elizabeth Feinler RFC 810 Ken Harrenstien 1 March 1982 Zaw-Sing Su References: RFC 811, 796 Vic White Obsoletes: RFC 608 Network Information Center SRI International
The ARPANET Official Network Host Table, as outlined in RFC 608, no longer suits the needs of the DoD community, nor does it follow a format suitable for internetting. This paper specifies a new host table format applicable to both ARPANET and Internet needs.
In addition to host name to host address translation and selected protocol information, we have also included network and gateway name to address correspondence, and host operating system information.
This Host Table is utilized by the DoD Host Name Server maintained by the ARPANET Network Information Center (NIC) on behalf of the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) (RFC 811). It obsoletes the host table described in RFC 608.
A machine-translatable ASCII text version of the new DoD Host Table is online in the file <NETINFO>HOSTS.TXT on the SRI-NIC host. It can be obtained by connecting to host SRI-NIC (10.0.0.73) from your local FTP server, logging in as user=ANONYMOUS, password=GUEST, and doing a 'get' on <NETINFO>HOSTS.TXT. The same table may also be obtained via the NIC Host Name Server.
NOTE: See Appendix A. for timeframe for cutover.
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This is depicted in the following diagram:
+--------------+-----------------------------------------------+ |0| NET <-7-> | LOCAL ADDRESS <-24-> | +--------------+-----------------------------------------------+ +---+--------------------------+-------------------------------+ |1 0| NET <-14-> | LOCAL ADDRESS <-16-> | +---+--------------------------+-------------------------------+ +-----+----------------------------------------+---------------+ |1 1 0| NET <-21-> | LOCAL ADDRESS | +-----+----------------------------------------+---------------+
+-+-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+ |0| 10 | HOST | LOGICAL HOST | IMP | +-+-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+
(NOTE: RFC 796 describes the local address mappings for several other networks.)
NET : 10.0.0.0 : ARPANET :
; (semicolon) is used to denote the beginning of a comment. Any text on a given line following a ';' is comment, and not part of the host table. NET keyword introducing a network name/address entry GATEWAY keyword introducing a gateway name/address entry HOST keyword introducing a host name/address entry : (colon) is used as a field delimiter :: (2 colons) indicates a null field , (comma) is used as a data element delimiter XXX/YYY indicates protocol information of the type TRANSPORT/SERVICE.
where TRANSPORT/SERVICE options are specified as
"FOO/BAR" - both transport and service known
"FOO" - transport known; services not known or not running, OR "BAR" - name is known, what it does is not
NOTE: See Appendices B and C for specific options and acronyms.
Each host table entry is an ASCII text string comprised of 6 fields, where
Field 1 = KEYWORD indicating whether this entry pertains
to a NET, GATEWAY, or HOST. NET entries cannot have
alternate addresses or nicknames.
Field 2 = Internet Address of Network, Gateway, or Host
followed by alternate addresses
Field 3 = Official Name of Network, Gateway, or Host
(with optional nicknames)
Field 4 = Machine Type
Field 5 = Operating System
Field 6 = Protocol List
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Fields 3-6, if available, pertain to the first address in Field 2.
'Blanks' (spaces and tabs) are ignored between data elements or fields, but are disallowed within a data element.
Each entry ends with a colon.
The host table will be sorted by internet address.
<entry> ::= <keyword> ":" <addresses> ":" <names> [":" [<cputype>] [":" [<opsys>] [":" [<protocol list>] ]]] ":" <addresses> ::= <address> *["," <address>] <address> ::= <octet> "." <octet> "." <octet> "." <octet> <octet> ::= <0 to 255 decimal> <names> ::= <netname> | <gatename> | <official hostname> *["," <nicknames>] <netname> ::= <name> <gatename> ::= <name> <official hostname> ::= <name> <nickname> ::= <name> <protocol list> ::= <protocol spec> *["," <protocol spec>] <protocol spec> ::= <transport name> "/" <service name> | <raw protocol name>
<entry-field> ::= <entry-text> [<cr><lf> <blank> <entry-field>] <blank> ::= <space or tab> <keyword> ::= NET | GATEWAY | HOST <name> ::= <letter>[*[<letter-or-digit-or-hyphen>]<letter-or-digit>] <cputype> ::= PDP-11/70 | DEC-1080 | C/30 | CDC-6400...etc. <opsys> ::= ITS | MULTICS | TOPS20 | UNIX...etc. <transport name> ::= TCP | NCP | UDP | IP...etc. <service name> ::= TELNET | FTP | SMTP | MTP...etc. <raw protocol name> ::= <name> <comment> ::= ";" <arbitrary text><cr><lf>
Notes:
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The cutover date for use of the new host table is 1 May 1982. The table below indicates which files will contain the old or the new versions of the host table for what period of time. After 1 August 1982, the old format for <NETINFO>HOSTS.TXT (specified in RFC-608) will no longer be supported.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- May 1982 June-July 1982 August 1982 on -------------------------------------------------------------------- <NETINFO>HOSTS.TXT <NETINFO>HOSTS.TXT <NETINFO>HOSTS.TXT old version new version new version <NETINFO>NHOSTS.TXT <NETINFO>NHOSTS.TXT old version new version (test) new version discontinued <NETINFO>OHOSTS.TXT <NETINFO>OHOSTS.TXT old version old version --------------------------------------------------------------------
These periods of overlap should give implementors time to make the necessary changes to programs accessing this file.
IP TCP/FTP IP/GW TCP/MTP NCP TCP/NNS NCP/FTP TCP/RJE NCP/RJE TCP/SMTP NCP/SMTP TCP/TELNET NCP/TELNET TCP/TFTP NCP/NNS UDP NVP TCP
Note: "TCP" implies IP is also implemented
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
GW - Gateway Protocol IP - Internet Protocol MTP - Mail Transfer Protocol NCP - Network Control Protocol NNP - NIC Internet Name Server Protocol NVP - Network Voice Protocol RJE - Remote Job Entry Protocol SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol TELNET - TELNET Protocol TCP - Transmission Control Protocol TFTP - Trivial File Transfer Protocol UDP - User Datagram Protocol
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ASP KRONOS RSX11M VMS AUGUST MCP RT11 WAITS BKY MOS SCOPE CCP MPX-RT SIGNAL DOS/360 MULTICS SINTRAN ELF MVT TENEX EPOS NOS TOPS10 EXEC-8 NOS/BE TOPS20 GCOS OS/MVS TSS GPOS OS/MVT UNIX ITS RIG VM/370 INTERCOM RSX11 VM/CMS